Talk:WNET

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[edit] Flagship

WNET is not a "flagship" station of PBS. It's an important station, yes; but then, as mentioned in the edit history, so are WGBH, WQED-TV, KQED, and several other PBS stations which each have produced a comparable number of widely-carried shows. Remember that PBS gives each member station a certain amount of autonomy not present in commercial stations. As a result, PBS's distribution of programming does not follow the model set forth by network flagships (and fellow NYC stations) WNBC-TV, WABC-TV, WCBS-TV, et al. SwissCelt 00:42, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)

After an e-mail discussion with Dfmock, I'm willing to concede that WNET is as qualified to call itself a "flagship" station as any other PBS member station. But then, that brings up the question of what stations might be called flagships.

IMO, a partial list might go something like this:

Definitely a flagship

• WGBH (Boston)
• WNET (New York)
• KQED (San Francisco-Northern California)
• WETA (Washington)

Most likely a flagship

• WQED (Pittsburgh)
• KCET (Los Angeles)

Possibly a flagship

• KPBS (San Diego)
• WHYY (Wilmington-Philadelphia)
• WYES (New Orleans; has produced a fair number of cooking shows including those by Paul Prudhomme (and Justin Wilson?))

Probably not a flagship

• WGTV (Athens-Atlanta; is the flagship of Georgia Public Television, but probably not a national flagship)
• WPBS (Watertown, NY; article goes to some length disclaiming the flagship moniker in spite of the call letters)
• Any of the stations in my home state of Ohio
• (and so on....)

The amount of programming carried nationally on PBS member stations would seem to be the primary criterion, but not necessarily the only one. Thoughts? -- SwissCelt 19:47, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

My take on this? The "flagship" label is one that was originally applied to the big commercial network-owned stations (WCBS/WNBC/WABC and KCBS/KNBC/KABC in New York and California); the networks were originating most of their popular broadcast content at the national level, not buying it from individual local stations, in a completely opposite approach to the PBS model. This meant that market size was the sole criterion for the "flagship" label, with the "big three" networks choosing to name local station callsigns after the network itself in the two largest markets, Manhattan NY and Los Angeles CA.

Some early revisions of the PBS and WPBS articles came rather close to adding WPBS NY and KPBS California to these trios of big-city stations just because of the names. This led subsequent editors to post the current "WPBS-TV is not a flagship" text, as WPBS primarily serves Ottawa, not Manhattan, cutting its total potential audience to two million instead of the eleven million of the NYC stations. Meanwhile, we don't see "WCNY is not a flagship", "WCFE is not a flagship", "WXXI is not a flagship" and the like plastered onto every New York PBS member station's article text; WPBS-TV just got singled out for this silliness because of their choice of callsign.

PBS's structure does cause original programming production to be the primary criterion (WGBH owes its massive lead in visibility over other PBS member broadcasters not to that one transmitting tower on that Great Blue Hill as much as to "a production of WGBH Boston" appearing on so many programmes broadcast on so many other PBS stations across the nation). Satellites and cable TV are also distorting factors in visibility of individual stations.

There is no official definition; CBS may be free to say "WCBS is our flagship in New York" but PBS itself isn't going to be as free to designate one station a "flagship" and another not as they don't own the individual stations - organizations in the local communities own them, so the network playing favourites is inadvisable. As such, this whole exercise becomes nothing more than a mere statement of opinion on the part of viewers. Amount of programming (and quality of original programming) should by far be the most important criteria, home market size a very distant second at best.

A tempest in a teapot in any case. Let each station, and their original programming, stand on their own merits. If WGBH sends out many programmes of the calibre of a NOVA or Masterpiece Theatre while WPBS-TV primarily produces a list of fishing or gardening shows, naturally WGBH will earn the greater level of visibility in the PBS network. Beyond that, it's all subjective... --carlb 17:23, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

Ah, but if the designation is subjective, then it's not encyclopedic and therefore should not be included in the article. Otherwise, one can edit an article to say, "WNET is liek the best PBS station EVAR!!!" and not get called on NPOV. (Grammar, though, is another story.) -- SwissCelt 02:31, 27 July 2005 (UTC)

On an aside, some of WNET's newer programmes are showing a new ident. It uses the Thirteen logo amist a skyline (assuming it's NYC). Can someone get a screenshot of that ident? -Daniel Blanchette 16:47, 24 July 2006 (UTC)